The Punjab Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a resolution expressing gratitude to the President, Pranab Mukherjee and the Union government for conferring the Padma Vibhushan on Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, on the Republic Day, which was a recognition of his continued services for the welfare of poor, Dalits and farmers during the political career spanning six decades.
While the resolution was moved by the Finance minister, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, the entire House passed it by a voice vote amid thumping of desks. In his response, Mr Badal said that while the Padma award was a recognition of the spirit of the Punjabi people, he was further humbled that the opposition had joined in as well.
However, the Congress failed to pushed through a resolution to show solidarity with the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, who has been summoned by a court in the trial for the Coalgate scandal. Senior Congress leader, Brahm Mohindra wanted that the House should pass a resolution to support Dr. Singh, who was known for his clean image and having stood up for Punjab and the Punjabi people world over.
Earlier, during the ‘Zero Hour’, Leader of the Opposition Sunil Jakhar made a spirited attempt to convince the Speaker, Charanjit Singh Atwal, to immediately allow a discussion on the party’s privilege motion against Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia for misleading the House during the previous session, over the latter being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate probing the multi crore synthetic drugs’ scandal. Amid some heated arguments between the ruling benches and the Opposition, shouting of slogans and animate posturing, the Speaker assured to give his ruling on the issue in a couple of days. Mr. Atwal said that he had also to decide on another privilege motion over Mr. Jakhar’s behaviour during the Governor’s address.
Earlier, the Congress staged a walkout when the Speaker granted extension to a question related to amounts of scholarships disbursed to Scheduled castes students during the previous three financial years. Some interesting exchanges were witnessed when an Akali MLA, Darshan Singh Shivalik sought an assurance for a probe from the Education minister, Daljeet Singh Cheema, over suppression of facts while allocating panchayat land to a trust to set up an Adarsh School in Ludhiana district.
